TIP OF THE WEEK
Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes
Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes is a new coalition based, two-year campaign that was launched in September 2006. The campaign is reinvigorating efforts to improve the quality of care and quality of life for those living or recuperating in America's nursing homes.
The campaign's unprecedented coalition includes long-term care providers, caregivers, medical and quality improvement experts, government agencies, consumers and others. Together, we are building on the success of other quality initiatives, including Quality First, the Nursing Home Quality Initiative (NHQI), and the culture change movement.
CLINICAL CAMPAIGN GOALS
- Reducing pressure ulcers. Proven techniques can reduce and almost eliminate this uncomfortable and potentially dangerous condition.
- Reducing the daily use of physical restraints. While physical restraints were once regarded as necessary for the safety of some residents, today the practice is to greatly reduce and even eliminate restraint use in nursing homes. Research has proven that restraints increase the likelihood of injury and may cause serious problems that jeopardize health and quality of life.
- Improving the management of pain in long stay residents and short-stay residents. These goals will help residents with painful medical conditions to lead more comfortable, pain-free lives by treating them for pain.
ORGANIZATIONAL CAMPAIGN GOALS
- Setting individualized targets for clinical quality improvement. Nursing homes that regularly set quality improvement targets are more likely to be committed to improving the quality of care they provide to their residents.
- Measuring resident and/or family satisfaction and incorporating this information to quality improvement activities. These goals will help us listen to the needs of our residents and their families.
- Measuring nursing staff turnover and developing action plans to improve staff retention, and adopting “consistent assignment.” Consistent staffing helps our staff and residents build relationships within our home.
JOIN TODAY
Registering your nursing home for this campaign is quick and easy:
- Click here or go to www.nhqualitycampaign.org and click on Nursing Home Participant Registration.
- Read about the eight campaign goals and choose at least three to work on (one organizational goal, one clinical goal, and at least one additional goal).
- Complete the registration form.
- Click “Enroll Now” to complete your registration.
All representatives of Ohio nursing homes that join the campaign will receive information from Ohio KePRO within a few weeks. This packet includes ways to promote your participation, steps to take for making improvements, and an invitation to a Yahoo! Group established especially for nursing homes that register for this campaign.
Go to www.nhqualitycampaign.org to learn more or to join today.
Upcoming Teleconferences
Presented by members of the Ohio Local Area Network for Excellence (LANE). Download flyer.
About the Campaign
Date: January 10, 2007
Time: 1:00 to 2:00 pm
Dial-in: 800.895.3606 Conference ID: KePRO
Support for Nursing Homes in the Campaign
Date: January 31, 2007
Time: 1:00 to 2:30 pm
Dial-in: 800.895.3606 Conference ID: KePRO
IN THE NEWS
ELDERLY DYING FROM FALLS MORE OFTEN
November 16, 2006 - - Newsday - - The death rate from falling has risen dramatically for elderly people since the 1990s, said federal health officials, speculating that it's because people are living longer with chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease.
"Since people are not dying as much from chronic diseases, they're more likely to die from a fall," said Judy Stevens, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Falling is the 14th leading cause of death among the elderly. Read More >>
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY IMPROVES QUALITY OF LIFE FOR DEMENTIA PATIENTS AND THEIR CAREGIVERS
November 16, 2006 - - EurekAlert - - Occupational therapy can help to improve the ability of people with dementia to perform daily activities and can also reduce the pressure on their caregivers, says a British Medical Journal study published today. Read More >>
AS MEMORIES SLIP AWAY, IT'S STILL A 'WONDERFUL LIFE'
November 17, 2006 - - NPR - - Five years ago, Ken Morganstern was told he had early-stage Alzeheimer's disease. Since then, his memory has gotten worse -- and he has lost some of the stories of his own life. But he hasn't lost the idea of who he is. Read More >>
STROKE MORE COMMON AMONG THE POOR: STUDY
November 24, 2006 - - Reuters - - Socioeconomic status may account for some, but not all, of the increased risk of stroke African Americans face, a new study shows.
Among men and women living in the Greater Cincinnati area, blacks were 69 percent more likely to suffer a first-time stroke in 1999 than whites, Dr. Dawn O. Kleindorfer of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio found. Adjusting for the effects of socioeconomic status reduced some of the effects of ethnicity, but not all of them. Read More >>
CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY STUDY EXAMINES CHANGING ROLES, EMOTIONS IN CAREGIVING
November 27, 2006 - - EurekAlert - - The early stages when a spouse or an adult child becomes a caregiver for someone with Alzheimer’s disease or another type of progressive dementia is fraught with a tug-of-war of emotions from resentment to protectiveness, according to a new study from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.
Read More >>
WAL-MART, INTEL, BRITISH PETROLEUM TO COLLABORATE TO PROMOTE USE OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
November 27, 2006 - - Kaiser Network - - Wal-Mart Stores, Intel, British Petroleum and other companies next week will announce a plan to provide and promote usage of portable electronic health records for their employees, the Wall Street Journal reports. Last summer at the request of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Wal-Mart and Intel joined together on the plan after meeting separately with the agency to discuss individual company efforts to reduce health costs. Read More >>
OTHER INDUSTRY EVENTS
Alzheimer’s Association Training Events
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Courses
Ohio Health Care Association Events
OSHIIP’s Medicare and Part D Check-ups throughout Ohio until December 20, 2006 (PDF)
An archive of The Nursing Home Weekly Update is available on our Web site. Click here >>
